The story is tragic at so many different levels, but at the same time, it was a sequence of exogenous events without which -- to say the least -- not one of us would arguably be here in this forum today having this conversation. And a sequence of events without which the world wouldn't have been a better place.

So Steve is Syrian? I have always thought he is Jewish. Nice to know. Jobs, however sounds like Jewish name.

Job was a biblical character. Has nothing directly to do with Steve. Biological genetics has very little to do with emotional connections between family members other than the perceived notion that blood relationships have some legal precedence in custody or inheritance cases.

If it werent for Steve's dad we'd all be using crappy Android phones!!!!!!

Android wouldn't exist at all without iOS, so no, we wouldn't.

Anyone want to see a REAL (read: lighthearted and not entirely serious) world without Steve Jobs?

Quote:

Originally Posted by It's A Wonderful OS

Jimmy Stewart stars as Steve "Jobs" Bailey, who runs a beleaguered but beloved small-town computer company. For years, big monopolist Bill "Gates" Potter has been wielding his power and money to gain control of the town. And for years, Steve has fought for survival: "This town needs my measly, one-horse computer, if only to have something for people to use instead of Windows!"

But now an angry mob is banging on Apple's front door, panicking.

"The press says your company is doomed!" yells one man.
"You killed the clones! We're going to Windows!" calls another.
"We want out of our investment!" they shout.

Steve, a master showman, calms them. "Don't do it! If Potter gets complete control of the desktop, you'll be forced to buy his bloatware and pay for his cruddy upgrades forever! We can get through this, but we've got to have faith and stick together!" The crowd decides to give him one more chance.

But the day before Christmas, something terrible happens: On his way to the bank, the company's financial man, Uncle Gilly, somehow manages to lose $1.7 billion. With eyes flashing, Steve grabs the befuddled Gilly by the lapels. "Where's that money, you stupid old fool? Don't you realize what this means? It means bankruptcy and scandal! Get out of my company --and don't come back!"

Desperate and afraid, Steve heads to Martini's, a local Internet cafe, and drowns his sorrows in an iced cappuccino. Surfing the Web at one of the cafe's Macs, all he finds online is second-guessing, sniping by critics, and terrible market-share numbers. As a blizzard rages, Steve drives his car crazily toward the river.

"Oh, what's the use?!" he exclaims. "We've lost the war. Windows rules the world. After everything I've worked for, the Mac is going to be obliterated! Think of all the passion and effort these last 15 years -- wasted! Think of the billions of dollars, hundreds of companies, millions of people...." He stands on the bridge, staring at the freezing, roiling river below -- and finally hurls himself over the railing.

After a moment of floundering in the chilly water, however, he's pulled to safety by a bulbous-nosed oddball.

"Who are you?!" Steve splutters angrily.

"Name's Clarence -- I mean Claris," says the guy. "I'm your guardian angel. I've been sent down to help you -- it's my last chance to earn my wings."

"Nobody can help me," says Steve bitterly. "If I hadn't created the Mac, everybody'd be a lot happier: Mr. Potter, the media, even our customers. Hell, we'd all be better off if the Mac had never been invented at all!" Music swirls. The wind howls. The tattoo on Steve's right buttock --Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story -- vanishes. Steve pats the empty pocket where he usually carries his Newton. "What gives?"

"You've got your wish," says Claris. "You never invented the Mac. It never existed. You haven't a care in the world."

"Look, little fella, go off and haunt somebody else," Steve mutters.

He heads over to Martini's Internet cafe for a good stiff drink. But he's shocked at the difference inside. "My God, look at the people using these computers! Both of them -- they look like math professors!"

"They are," says Claris.

"What is this, a museum? It looks like those computers are running DOS!"

"Good eye!" says Claris. "DOS version 25.01, in fact -- the very latest."

"I don't get it," Steve says.

"DOS is a lot better and faster these days, but it hasn't occurred to anybody to market a computer with icons and menus yet. There's no such thing as Windows -- after all, there never was a Mac interface for Microsoft to copy."

"But this equipment is ancient!" Steve exclaims. "No sound, no CD-ROM drive, not even 3.5-inch floppies!"

"But that's nuts!" Steve explodes. "You mean to tell me that the 46 percent of American households with computers are all using DOS?"

"Correction: All 9 percent of American households," says Claris cheerfully. "Without a graphic interface, computers are still too complicated to be popular."

"Bartender!" shouts Steve. "You don't have a copy of Wired here, do you? I've got to read up on this crazy reality!" The bartender glares. "I don't know what you're wired on, pal, but either stop talking crazy or get outta my shop."

"No such thing as Wired," whispers Claris. "Never was. Before you wished the Mac away, most magazines were produced entirely on the Mac. Besides, Wired would be awfully thin without the Web."

"Without the -- now, wait just a minute!"

Horrified, Steve rushes over to one of the PCs and connects to the Internet. "You call this the Net? It looks like a text-only BBS -- and there's practically nobody online! Where's Navigator? Where's Internet Explorer? Where's the Web, for Pete's sake?"

"Oh, I see," Claris smiles sympathetically. "You must be referring to all those technologies that spun off from the concept of a graphic interface. Look, Steve. Until the Mac made the mouse standard, there was no such thing as point and click. And without clicking, there could be no Web... and no Web companies. Believe it or not, Marc Andreesen works in a Burger King in Cincinnati."

Steve scoffs. "Well, look, if you apply that logic, then PageMaker wouldn't exist either. Photoshop, Illustrator, FreeHand, America Online, digital movies -- all that stuff began life on the Mac."

"You're getting it," Claris says. He holds up a copy of Time magazine. "Check out the cover price."

Steve runs through the town, delirious with joy. "Merry Christmas, Wired! Merry Christmas, Internet! Merry Christmas, wonderful old Microsoft!" And now his office is filled with smiling people whose lives the Mac has touched. There's old Mr. Chiat/Day the adman. There's Yanni the musician. And there's Mr. Spielberg the moviemaker. As the Apple board starts singing "Auld Lang Syne," somebody boots up a Power Mac.

Steve smiles at the startup sound. "You know what they say," he tells the crowd. "Every time you hear a startup chime, an angel just got his wings."

Sounds like a pathetic person. It is the father who should reach out to the son and not the other way around.

I also think that people who adopt their babies away are only one step above people who throw their babies in the trash can and they have zero right to ever meet their offspring which they abandoned.

By "people who adopt their babies", you mean "people who give their babies up for adoption", right?

Different cultures see things differently. It is an extremely rare case that a parent should be expected to humble themselves down to their children. It's an extremely modern, American concept. Most people in the world would call THAT backwards.

In any case, we don't really know the details so I doubt any of us can judge. Some people meet their biological parents and are very understanding of it. It sounds like Jobs' father at least contacted him a few times over the years. But maybe he's actually a jerk. WHO KNOWS.

Let this be a lesson to all parents who want nothing more than to give their child everything. Give them nothing, let them struggle and they will make something of themselves. Happiness breeds complacency. Adversity breeds achievement.

Or just a huge amount of resentment from being abandon, possibly an abandonment complex among other psychological issues as well as being disadvantage in life due to lack of guidance (not everyone will come out of it the way Jobs did) ...

I pray if you ever have kids, you would not do this to them thinking it's a good thing. ><

I must be a precog of some sort because I got a strong feeling about Steve Jobs today with regards his biological father. For some weird reason it came into my head today that Steve Jobs unbelievable motivation actually comes from a deep-seeded need for his biological-father's attention. Call me crazy, but that's what happened and next thing - 8 hours later I'm reading this story. Wow!

No, I'm not adopted. As for having compassion, I don't give it to those who don't deserve it. I don't have any compassion for people who abandoned their children. On the other hand, the children of course deserve compassion, as they had no say in the process. The parents, not so much.

The very notion and meaning of compassion is that it is unconditional love. You may eventually be mistaking it for pitying someone, which is an ego power driven attitude, nothing to do with love but self-ishness. Indeed you are lacking compassion in your attitude in that original post.

Of course it is relevant to talk about love because that's what this is all about. It's also Jobs love that we adore in his gadgets. We are all his children in a sense.

And yes, Jobs projected his love into the company. Which many of you may know from experience, feels and really is like a child to a founder.

And so Jobs had to lose his child "Apple Computer Inc." because the pattern with which he is "infected" - transmitted from father to son - had to repeat.

And then Jobs did it again by abandoning Lisa, his flesh and blood child, because once again the pattern had repeat. Good news is that Jobs changed his mind - life taught him well with all the failures and betrails - and rescued his relationship with his daughter. And with his sister.

But you can bet that this has much to do with his dis-ease. Maybe meeting with his father and forgiving him might help him clean out all that hatred that got stored inside and turned into cancer (cancer = repressed anger).

Ireland was totally right, now I realize. Being abandoned by a father makes one feel unworthy, so our beloved Steve Jobs had to prove to himself and the world how worthy of love and appreciation he is by building Apple.

Please, let this somehow be a step in the direction to a full blown healing.

I found this absolutely hilarious, it's like something right out of the Onion. 'Support his son in some capacity'? You mean the son who was the CEO of the most valuable company on Earth? Yeah, I'm sure he's profusely appreciative of your purchase- you and a few hundred million others. Maybe you could have been more 'supportive' by thinking of getting in touch before your son was on his deathbed dying of cancer.

The article states quite clearly that the father has gotten in touch several times via cards sent on Steve's birthday. The article does not state whether Steve opted to answer these cards.

No, I'm not adopted. As for having compassion, I don't give it to those who don't deserve it. I don't have any compassion for people who abandoned their children. On the other hand, the children of course deserve compassion, as they had no say in the process. The parents, not so much.

You sound like a truly hateful person.

Judging others who have been through an experience you clearly know nothing about.

I don't know for sure, but I kind of hope that the really hot bit of hell is reserved for people like you.

But, anyway, you should be so lucky to use an Android phone: you would finally be able to e.g. watch Youtube Flash files on your Android phone or tablet.

I giggled. Thank you for that

I can't remember the last time I landed on a web site or video that required flash. It might have been for a movie trailer. I think I just hopped on over to Apple Trailers after that. I must not be very lucky.

Sounds like a pathetic person. It is the father who should reach out to the son and not the other way around.

I also think that people who adopt their babies away are only one step above people who throw their babies in the trash can and they have zero right to ever meet their offspring which they abandoned.

Most of the time, adoption is the answer to give the child a better life because the parent understands they will not be able to provide for them properly. They do it for the child's own good, and Steve Jobs is a perfect example of the child turning out for the better.

Perhaps someone should have thrown you into a trash can as an infant, you hateful waste.

I am not sure how much of what he's saying is sincere, but my take is that he was more or less forced to give Steve up for adoption. And he fully acknowledges he is not his "dad" (beyond biological), not after his money, and just wants to have a cup of coffee.

maybe he realized how much of a *censored* (repeated many times over) he is.

That is not an appropriate response, but it is the only one i can think of right now.

All i have to say is that all the people who commented besides Apple ][, because the large majority rejected his views, that as someone who was adopted and know knows a "birth parent" and has understood what it took to get the adoption done.

PC means personal computer.

i have processing issues, mostly trying to get my ideas into speech and text.

What a hateful, uninformed statement. Giving up a child for adoption is a helluva big distance away from "throw[ing] their babies in the trash can". In fact, it's pretty much the opposite. It's bringing a life into being, but giving that living thing, your own child, to someone else because you know you can't raise it. To me that's a gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, and *selfless* decision.

I am so angry at this birth father. I was adopted 67 years ago and if I wanted to find my father I'd find him - especially if I had the money of Steve Job.
For the biological father to bring this out into the public sphere and try to put pressure on Steve is beyond reasonable it is self serving and self centered - not someone Steve needs in his life at this time - or any time! What a jerk.
If I were Steve I'd not acknowledge this man. Steve's real parents (his adopted parents) gave him the space to grow into himself. What a gift! We are all grateful to them.